May 24, 2017
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O PINION
M ETRO
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Portland Community College Professor James Stanley Harrison is the official historian for the Vanport
Mosaic Festival.
On Vanport’s History:
Expert pens work about ‘The Miracle City’
C hrista M C i ntyre
t he p ortland o bserver
Portland Community College
Professor James Stanley Harri-
son is the official historian for the
Vanport Mosaic Festival taking
place this long Memorial Day
weekend at multiple sites in north
and northeast Portland.
In 1998, Harrison walked into
Terrell Hall on the PCC Cascade
Campus and saw a large photo
exhibit about the deadly flood in
1948 that wiped out a city with a
large black population near Port-
land called Vanport. It was the
first time, although Harrison had
spent decades as a historian in
African-American history, that he
heard of the city.
Harrison has been filling in
the gaps by spending the last 10
years researching and writing a
new comprehensive book about
Vanport. His account, with a first
draft expected by the end of the
year, will add to the only one of-
ficial book on Vanport written in
by
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
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F OOD
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the late 1980’s by Manly Maben, a
teacher from Vancouver who was
a witness to the Vanport Flood and
primarily relied on accounts from
the Housing Authority of Portland.
While Professor Harrison be-
lieves it’s not possible to tell the
whole story of Vanport, also called
“The Miracle City” in one book,
his documentation is bringing new
insights about Vanport through his
extensive research of other his-
torical documents and interviews
with former residents.
One of the myths Harrison
wants to dispel is that Vanport was
built hastily.
His research found that two ma-
jor construction firms in Portland
built relatively solid structures at
Vanport.
“Quickly constructed, yes. But
hastily, the term which I have
seen, has a different implication,”
he said.
Harrison said Vanport had one
of the most efficient yards for
building Liberty Ships during
World War II. Unlike earlier East
Coast shipyards, Vanport had a
team of welders, instead of rivet-
ers and they used a prefabrication
assembly line method similar to
the automotive factories that Hen-
ry Ford developed in Michigan. It
would take an East Coast yard 6
months to finish one ship; Vanport
once finished a ship in 14 days.
It wasn’t just shipbuilding that
changed, so did the opportunity
for work. Before the war, black
Americans could often find only
menial jobs or employment as
porters on the railway lines mak-
ing around 40 cents an hour.
In Vanport, black workers
learned a skilled trade on equal
footing with other workers and
could make up to $5 an hour,
which is equal to around $12 an
hour today. The first African Amer-
ican teachers in Oregon taught in
Vanport schools and the first Afri-
can American librarian in the state
C ontinued on p age 13
Portland Voters Pass Historic Bond
Portland voters delivered a de-
cisive victory last week to a his-
toric property tax levy to rebuild
or remodel Benson, Madison and
Lincoln high schools, Kellogg
Middle School, and make health
and safety repairs to nearly every
school building in the district.
Passage of the $790 million
bond follows a similar measure
approved in 2012 to support the
restoration and modernization of
the city’s public education facil-
ities. The new measure will also
be used to address lead in school
drinking water, asbestos and oth-
er environmental safety concerns
that have plagued a district with
aging schools.
The vote-by-mail election also
saw three new members elected to
positions on the Portland Public
Schools board. Rita Moore, Scott
Bailey and Julia Brim-Edwards
will claim their seats in July.
Moore, who has spent years act-
ing as a watchdog for the district
and was endorsed by the teachers
union, defeated widely endorsed
new-comer Jamila Singleton Mun-
son, a member of Portland’s black
community. Brim-Edwards, a Nike
executive who previously served on
the board from 2001 to 2005 will
once again resume her seat, and
Bailey will be bringing his two-de-
cade’s worth of experience working
on the PPS budget and policy advi-
sory committees to the board.